What we'll miss about Michael Schumacher

At the Australian grand prix in 1994 and the European in 1997, collisions with Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve respectively saw Schumacher accused of trying to clinch the title at the expense of the men with whom he collided. After the 1998 Belgian grand prix, he accused David Coulthard of attempting to kill him after another collision. In qualifying for this year's Monaco race an FIA enquiry found Schumacher guilty of stopping deliberately and he was stripped of all his qualifying times.

The strategist

Schumacher has an unrivalled ability to produce high-speed laps at key parts of a race. When he catches an opponent he often waits behind him until he refuels. While the opponent struggles to get up to speed in a heavy car, Schumacher takes advantage of the clear track in front of him and his car's lighter weight to turn in a series of fast laps which create enough of a lead so that Schumacher can make his own pit stop and still come out in front of his rival.

The team player

When he left Benetton in 1996 after winning back-to-back titles, they won only one race in the next five years. Prior to his arrival, Ferrari had not won the driver's title since 1979. But the arduous days and nights Schumacher spent with the mechanics fine-tuning his car helped a deep bond to develop within the team and the trust built up between the officials and their No1 driver has been pivotal to their success.

The family man

Despite becoming the world's first billionaire sportsman with an estimated annual salary in excess of £53m, Schumacher has remained grounded. His father, Rolf, was a bricklayer, who also ran a local kart track in Kerpen, where Schumacher returned in 2001, below, and his mother worked in the canteen selling hotdogs. He has never taken his children, Gina-Maria and Mick, to a race and lives a very private life with his wife, Corinna.

The record breaker

In 1995 he became the youngest double world champion in formula one and the records have kept coming. In 2001 at the Belgian grand prix he won his 52nd race, breaking Alain Prost's record. In 2002 he overtook Nigel Mansell's record of nine season victories, ending with 11, and he made the podium in each race. In 2003 he broke Juan Manuel Fangio's record by winning his seventh driver's title. In 2004 he won a record 12 of the first 13 races on his way to a high of 148 points for the season. This year at Imola he overtook Aryton Senna's record 65 pole positions; in France he became the first driver to win an individual grand prix eight times and, with his victory in the US, became the only driver in any motorsport discipline to win five times at Indianapolis.